The Tudors are one of those history topics that seem made for drama. There are kings and queens, marriages, arguments, ambition, danger, difficult decisions and plenty of dramatic moments.
For children, acting out these stories can make the Tudor period much easier to understand than simply learning names and dates.
That was the idea behind my book Tudors on Stage: A Collection of Plays for Children Based on the Tudors.
Bringing Tudor History to Life
When children take on a role, history becomes more than something that happened a long time ago.
A child playing Henry VIII has to think about what Henry wanted and why he made particular decisions. A child playing Catherine of Aragon can explore what it might have felt like to have her position as queen challenged. Anne Boleyn’s story opens up very different questions about power, ambition and consequences.
Drama gives children an opportunity to explore the people behind the history.
You don’t need elaborate costumes, scenery or a stage. The plays can be read in the classroom, rehearsed for a performance or used as a starting point for further drama and history work.
Who Will Children Meet?
Tudors on Stage contains short plays based on many of the best-known people of the Tudor period, including:
- Henry VII
- Henry VIII
- Catherine of Aragon
- Anne Boleyn
- Jane Seymour
- Anne of Cleves
- Catherine Howard
- Catherine Parr
- Edward VI
- Lady Jane Grey
- Mary I
- Elizabeth I
- Mary, Queen of Scots
This means that the plays can also be used to help children build up a picture of the Tudor period over time rather than looking at one historical figure in isolation.
Using Tudor Plays in the Classroom
There are lots of ways to use the scripts.
You might begin by reading a play together and then ask the children what they noticed about the characters.
Who had the power?
What did each character want?
Did everyone see the situation in the same way?
What might have happened if somebody had made a different decision?
You can then move beyond the script.
Freeze an important moment and create a still image.
Hot-seat Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn or Elizabeth I and allow the rest of the class to question them.
Create a thought tunnel for a character facing a difficult decision.
Ask groups to improvise what might have happened immediately before or after a scene.
Children can also research the real historical events and compare what they discover with the play.
Drama, History and Literacy Together
One of the things I like about using drama to teach history is how easily different areas of learning begin to overlap.
Children are reading, speaking, listening, questioning, researching and interpreting information while also learning about history.
They are not simply being told that something happened. They are being asked to consider why it happened, who was affected and how different people might have experienced the same event.
For reluctant writers in particular, acting and talking about a historical situation before writing can give them something concrete to write about.
After exploring a scene, children might write:
- a diary entry from a character
- a letter between two historical figures
- a newspaper report
- an alternative ending
- an interview with a Tudor monarch
- their own additional scene for the play
Suitable for More Than a School Performance
Although the scripts can certainly be performed, they don’t have to lead to a polished production.
They can be used in history lessons, drama sessions, literacy work, assemblies, home education, drama groups and school performances.
A play might take up an entire lesson, or a teacher might use just one scene as the starting point for an investigation.
For me, that is where drama becomes particularly valuable in education. The performance is not necessarily the most important part. It is the thinking, questioning and exploring that happens along the way.
Tudors on Stage: A Collection of Plays for Children Based on the Tudors is Book 24 in the On Stage series.
The book contains accessible scripts with clear narration, flexible casting and plenty of speaking parts, making them suitable for different group sizes and abilities.
If you are teaching the Tudors and would like to move beyond worksheets and textbooks, the plays provide a practical way for children to step into Tudor history and explore it for themselves.
Tudors on Stage is available in paperback and Kindle editions from Amazon.
